Welcome Back to Term Two!

It has been a whirlwind fortnight but it has been great to have the students and staff back in classrooms and learning.

BLESSED EDMUND RICE FEAST DAY

This year, the Feast Day fell on a Sunday, so our College community celebrated Blessed Edmund Rice’s Feast Day Mass on the Thursday prior.

The mass was an uplifting experience, focusing on Blessed Edmund Rice’s immense faith and ability to look outside his own life’s challenges to help those lacking education and those in need.

I have included a prayer from Dr Michael Slattery, Chair of the EREA Council, on behalf of the Edmund Rice Education Australia Council.

Blessed Edmund Rice Prayer

O God, we thank you for the life of Blessed Edmund Rice.

He opened his heart to Christ present in those oppressed by poverty and injustice.

May we follow his example of faith and generosity.

Grant us the courage and compassion of Blessed Edmund as we seek to live 

lives of love and service

We ask this through Christ our Lord. 

Amen

May Blessed Edmund Rice inspire our students and our community to consider how those who live on the margins may be assisted and treated with care and dignity.

DRESS LIKE A PIRATE DAY

As has been advertised on Compass, this year, to support children’s brain cancer research, the College will be celebrating ‘Dress Like a Pirate Day’. 

Students and staff will dress like a pirate on Monday, 20th May, for a gold coin donation.

We encourage our students (from K-12) to get involved on the day and help out such a worthwhile charity.

FRIENDS OF FRANCIS

The next meeting of the Friends of Francis (the College’s newly branded Parents and Carers Association) will be held on Monday, Week 6 (3rd June) at 6pm. Attendees (and those who sent apologies) from the last meeting will be sent details regarding nominations for facilitators of the new parent structures in the coming week.

More details will follow in the next newsletter.

UPCOMING STAFF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING (STUDENT FREE) DAY

As flagged in the College Calendar, our staff will participate in professional learning on Friday, May 17th. This is a pupil-free day from K-12.

The day will provide an opportunity for our staff to delve further into New Pedagogies for Deep Learning - an impressive framework for character education and critical thinking.

REQUESTS FOR LEAVE AND TRAVEL DURING SCHOOL TERMS

Over the past fortnight, the College has been inundated with numerous requests for extended student overseas leave. Over 15 applications request leave for more than 20 days (some even beyond 40 days). Whilst the College recognises the powerful role that travel can play, conversations should be had before travel plans regarding how such leave may impact a student’s learning. Indeed, the length of some leave may cause considerable content and skills to be missed and may cause jeopardy with the completion of NESA curriculum requirements.

The College will be clarifying its approach to leave in the coming months, but in brief, while specific amounts of short leave may be granted, extended requests for holidays are likely not to be approved.

Please read Mrs Agostino’s article in this newsletter about student leave in the Senior Years.

MOTHER’S DAY

This morning as part of the Mother’s Day Liturgy, I offered a short homily at the end of the Gospel reading.

For myself, the Gospel reading from John 16: 20-23 emphasises that while their will be challenges, sorrow and pain, overwhelmingly motherhood brings joy. Indeed, the joy a mother, maternal carer, or mother figure can receive from a child is exceptional. And therefore we all should feel immense gratitude for our mothers, grandmothers and/or maternal figures.

While I do like to remain quite private, my mother’s passing at the start of this year has allowed me to reflect on the love and gratitude that a child can feel for their mother.

Many mothers, grandmothers and motherly figures would concur that motherhood is a little like riding a rollercoaster. So, while mothers are unquestionably the greatest supporters of their children or the young people in their care, with the incredible joys, various milestones and achievements of the children. There is also deep protective love and awareness that when things don’t quite go as you may have expected - they will be there for their children - and they do this because of love.

Therefore, to all mothers and maternal figures, please be confident that, whilst it is not always stated clearly, you are loved and appreciated. Even when children’s bedrooms aren’t as clean as one might expect, or children don’t pick after themselves, know that the children love you and that your presence gives them comfort and a great feeling of being accepted.

I constantly marvel at the depth of love mothers and mother figures demonstrate for their children. Most children see these individuals as having almost superhuman powers so it is only fitting that this coming Sunday we all recognise the joy of motherhood and express our immense gratitude for your immeasurable role and everything you do.

- Happy Mother’s Day!

REFLECTIVE POEM ON MOTHERS AND MOTHERHOOD:

Any Woman

I am the pillars of the house;
The keystone of the arch am I.
Take me away, and roof and wall
Would fall to ruin me utterly.

I am the fire upon the hearth,
I am the light of the good sun,
I am the heat that warms the earth,
Which else were colder than a stone.

At me the children warm their hands;
I am their light of love alive.
Without me cold the hearthstone stands,
Nor could the precious children thrive.

I am the twist that holds together
The children in its sacred ring,
Their knot of love, from whose close tether
No lost child goes a-wandering.

I am the house from floor to roof,
I deck the walls, the board I spread;
I spin the curtains, warp and woof,
And shake the down to be their bed.

I am their wall against all danger,
Their door against the wind and snow,
Thou Whom a woman laid in a manger,
Take me not till the children grow!

- by Katherine Tynan